I want you to pretend please, with me, that we have a big camera up
here. “High-angle shot,” it’s called. Sees all of us. Then, later,
there will be a camera with a close-up. The high-angle shot shows all
of you, listening politely, and then I say to you that the theme of
our Mass is “Get Real!” Get real, which is what many people may say
many Sundays after hearing a gospel, “Get real.” Now, as usual, I
would like to mention the scholars whom I consult, the great Catholic
scholars of the Bible. And they are reputed as such throughout the
world. They all agree on one thing. You know, each one takes a
different angle to approach and analyze. But they all agree on one
thing, all six of them. The point of this gospel is not Thomas
doubting, but that faith is believing without seeing. Solid faith,
grown-up faith is believing here without seeing, as you do or you
wouldn’t be here on a lovely Sunday morning. You do, believe! But
still you are only human so “Get real” has got to be part of it, at
least today.

OK. So, the camera closes in on three imaginary people and there is a
close-up over there of Curt; later, Gert; and finally Bert. Close-
ups. And we can see what they are saying. I’ve told you my father was
a cartoonist and the technical word for that circle over the heads
of cartoon characters is called, “the balloon.” And we can read the
balloon, what Curt’s thinking. Curt’s thinking, “Yeah, get real! All
right, all right. I believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. More
important, I believe he said that we will rise. I know. I know the
whole argument.”

Whatever happened to the body, the empty tomb, there has been more
archaeological, scriptural, psychological evidence for the empty tomb
of the risen body of Jesus than for any other historical incident in
history because nothing has been more researched. What ever happened
to the body? And how did eleven scared guys suddenly go out to the
Mediterranean Basin and then throughout Europe and change the face of
the world? He is risen! And what was the big reward of these guys?
Exile, persecution and death! And they went to their deaths saying
“He is risen.... It’s OK. Kill me. He is risen.” And there was a guy
in Rome (I know you’ve heard this every Easter, but there was a
guy...) who never met Jesus. He was a rather hostile, brilliant,
Jewish scholar named Josephus. We have his writings. Josephus records
about this Jesus of Nazareth that’s giving the Pharisees a hard time.
And later, Josephus (There are letters back and forth.) says some of
the Pharisees connived with some of the Romans and they got “this
pest” executed! And then, later, we read that Josephus is startled
and annoyed because some of the very Pharisees who had Jesus put to
death have joined his apostles because they say they saw him alive.
So it wasn’t just Matthew, Mark, Luke and John making this stuff up!
And then these scared guys got this courage and they went all through
the Roman Empire, “He’s risen! ... He’s risen. We saw him. We are
witnesses.”

“OK, get real. Sometimes I wish a priest” (This is Curt.) “would talk
about real stuff, like hedge funds, tax refunds, real estate. I
believe this. I believe this. But I am only human. Get real, real,
real. Real sounds like meal, meal. Breakfast. Eggs Benedict. Yeah,
Eggs Benedict. What the heck! It’s Easter season. It’s a little
expensive, but I am going to treat myself to Eggs Benedict.” And for
the rest of the Mass, Curt, who is only human is thinking of Eggs
Benedict.

And the next person is a lady, Gert. She is over here somewhere
(motioning to the other side of the church). And the camera closes in
on Gert. Gert says to herself, “I’m with Thomas. I agree with Thomas.
We read in the gospel...” (She has studied this Bible.) “that Thomas,
when Jesus announces he is going up to Jerusalem (The apostles know
that means trouble!) Thomas says, ‘If he’s going up to be killed,
let’s go with him and be killed with him.’ What a loyal man!! Loving!
‘Thomas the doubter!’ He loved Jesus. He wasn’t doubting. He was
hurt. That’s why he made that vulgar, noisey declaration, ‘I’ll put
my hand in his side and then I’ll believe.’ He was hurt. Thomas was
thinking like a lot of us very sensitive people, ‘I love and I am
loyal and I hang on and I’m taken for granted. And the one time that
the Lord comes back from the dead I’m not there. Why did he pick that
time?! I’m sensitive.’ And a lot of us sensitive people keep a lot
of pain and rage impacted and quiet because we want people to love us
and not get mad at us. But when we explode, plaster falls. And that’s
what Thomas did. He exploded, ‘I’m not going to bel.....’ It wasn’t
that he doubted. He was just wounded! And when Jesus came,” Gert is
thinking, (We are reading the balloon.) “I bet he didn’t scold
Thomas. I bet he said it very gently, ‘Put your hand here. Don’t be
unbelieving.’ We don’t read that Thomas went up and poked his hand
into Jesus’ side. He just gasps! And with the kind of love that
intense people feel and can rarely reveal, ‘My Lord and my God!’ I’m
with Thomas. People take a lot of us for granted because we are quiet
but our loyalty is deep. Speaking about sensitive, that lady across
the aisle, on several Sundays, I have approached her tentatively for
the handshake of peace and she has turned her mink-clad shoulder to
me, turned away with a little nose up in the air. Well someday, I’m
going to lose it! If she won’t take the handshake of peace, I’m going
to shove her into next week! ....I’m only human, like Thomas.”

And the third and last, is Bert, over here. And Bert’s thinking,
“Risen body?” You see, he knows the gospels, this guy, because, like
you, he has been coming to Mass all his life. “Gee, a risen body can
do all kinds of incredible things, walks through a bolted door (I bet
they even had Doberman Pinschers, they were so scared of getting
arrested like Jesus was.) And he just appears. He comes and goes in
the gospels after Easter. They recognize him. They don’t recognize
him. He enters. He disappears. He has a risen body. What does that
mean?”

“What does that mean? We’ll all rise, and that’s Incarnational
Theology. Catholicism is an incarnational religion. Body, incarnate,
in the flesh. There’s nothing disgusting or shameful about the body,
and when it’s risen, it’s transcended. It’s recognizeable and it’s
Jesus. And it will be I! Let me think now. I remember once that man
that’s up there babbling that bald guy, he once said that ‘I am Fr.
Dibble and I go on an African Safari and I get run over by a herd of
wild rhinoceroses and there is not much left of me and they cart what
little bones and flesh and they mail it off to some Swiss clinic. And
in a year, they kind of put me together again, and I reappear a year
later in the grocery store, and I meet you. I meet Bert.”

“Hi Bert!”
“Who are you?”
“Why, I am Fr. Dibble.”
”No, you’re not! You’re good looking. You’ve got hair and you’re
muscular. You can’t possibly be he, to use your prissy grammar.”
“But I am he!”
“No, you’re not. You don’t look anything like him. You don’t look
like you’d ever get sick or weep, or... You look terrific!!”
”I AM Father Dibble!”
”Prove it!”
“OK, I’ll prove it because in the theology of the Church, what will
be risen will be recognizeably human but the persona, that’s what you
will recognize. I won’t be the way I was when you saw me in Church
way back in 2007. But you will recognize the personality, the real
me. I’ll prove it. I love acronyms, old movies and Irish terriers.”
“Oh! ... Maybe you ARE.”

God doesn’t go around the Universe at the Resurrection, “Oh, oh! Let
me get this bit of dust. That was his aorta, and this bit of dust was
his ear, and I’ll jam it all together with magic glue.” Oh, I know
you know that, but it’s good to be reminded you will know me and I
will know you from the personality, the unique you. We are as
different as our fingerprints. The good you have done, the evil you
have suffered, all the eccentricities of your personality, but shorn
of any kind of sin, uniquely you. We will recognize each other and we
will look wonderful! No more tears, no more sorrow. Risen body.
That’ll be great! A risen body, hair again. I believe in the
Resurrection and it’s wonderful. Jesus said we would rise. People I
love, I’ll meet them again. I’ll be able to say, “I’m sorry. I’m
sorry. Never got a chance to tell you.” And another person, “I didn’t
take your love for granted. Just routine set in. I didn’t take your
love for granted. Not really.” Or, “I made it! Here I am. Oh, you’re
here too! That’s another surprise.”

And it’s wonderful to know there has been a new book published called
“The Language of God” by some super-duper scientist who says that of
course, we will rise from the dead. The human consciousness wedded to
matter, of course. Quantum mechanics has proved it. There is such a
book and I didn’t read that chapter. Science is getting closer and
closer to stuff that, so far, we have always been taking on faith.

Get real! Rise again, real.... real.... real. Rhymes with “appeal.”
We appeal to you, Father. Time’s movin’ on. So, we appeal. Your lips
you will seal. And you know, say “Amen.” .... In the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.